Stress Management: Relaxing Your Mind and Body

Take a deep breath. Hold it for a
moment, and then exhale. Feel more relaxed? Breathing exercises are one way to
relax. Here you will learn about different ways to relax your mind and body.
Being relaxed can help ease stress. It can also relieve anxiety, depression,
and sleep problems.

Key points

To relax means to calm the mind, the body, or
both.

Relaxing can quiet your mind and make you feel peaceful and
calm. Your body also reacts when you relax. For example, your muscles may be
less tense and more flexible.

There are different ways to relax.
You may find one or more ways help to you calm down and feel at peace.

Many
methods of relaxation work on both the mind and the body at the same time.
Other ways to relax focus on just one or the other.

Relaxing the mind means to quiet your thoughts
so that you feel calm and peaceful. This can help you feel better and think
more clearly than when you are stressed or anxious.

Relaxing the
body depends on where you are holding your tension. When people are stressed,
their muscles often become tight. Learning how to relax your muscles, such as
through
progressive muscle relaxation, is one way to relax
your body. Breathing deeply is another way.

Relaxing your mind and body can make you
feel calm and peaceful. It can help relieve stress as well as anxiety,
depression, and sleep problems.

Stress is a physical or
emotional response to life’s changes and challenges. When you are under stress
or feel anxious, your body reacts as if it is under attack. This is called the
fight-or-flight stress response. Your body releases hormones that speed up your
heart rate and breathing and make your muscles tense. Stress also affects your
emotions, making you feel moody, tense, upset, or depressed. Over time, stress
can affect your health in other ways too. For example, stress has been linked
to high blood pressure.

When you are able to relax your mind and
body, your body stops producing the hormones that create stress. The feelings
of stress ease, and you return to a state of calm, both physically and
mentally.

Test Your Knowledge

Relaxing your mind and body can have a positive effect
on your health.

There are lots
of ways to relax. Some ways are designed to relax your mind and some to relax
your body. But because of the way the mind and body are connected, many
relaxation methods work on both the mind and the body.

You may
want to try one or more of the following relaxation tips to see what works best
for you.

Relaxing the mind:

Take slow, deep breaths. Or try other breathing
exercises for relaxation.

Practice mindful meditation. The goal of mindful
meditation is to focus your attention on things that are happening right now in
the present moment. For example, listen to your body. Is your breathing fast,
slow, deep, or shallow? Do you hear noises, such as traffic, or do you hear
only silence? The idea is just to note what is happening without trying to
change it.

Try progressive muscle relaxation. This process
involves tensing and relaxing each muscle group. Progressive muscle relaxation
can reduce anxiety and muscle tension. If you have trouble falling asleep, this
method may also help with your sleep problems. When you relax your muscles,
your body gets the signal that it is okay to fall asleep.

Test Your Knowledge

Because of the way the mind and body are
connected, some things you do to relax your mind may also work to relax your
body. For example, doing slow, deep breathing can help relax your mind and
body. Progressive muscle relaxation not only relaxes the muscles, but also may
reduce anxiety and calm your mind so you can sleep.

Because of the way the mind and body are
connected, some things you do to relax your mind may also work to relax your
body. For example, doing slow, deep breathing can help relax your mind and
body. Progressive muscle relaxation not only relaxes the muscles, but also may
reduce anxiety and calm your mind so you can sleep.

Now that you have read this
information, you are ready to relax your mind and body. You may try one or more
of the relaxation methods we've mentioned. Use the ones that have the best
results for you.

If you would like more information on how to relax your
mind and body, the following resource is available:

Organization

National Center for Complementary and Alternative
Medicine (NCCAM) Clearinghouse

P.O. Box 7923

Gaithersburg, MD 20898

Phone:

1-888-644-6226(301) 519-3153 for international calls

Fax:

1-866-464-3616 toll-free

TDD:

1-866-464-3615 toll-free

Email:

info@nccam.nih.gov

Web Address:

www.nccam.nih.gov/health/clearinghouse (or
www.nccaminfo.org/livehelp/ for live help online)

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
(NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) explores complementary and
alternative healing practices in the context of rigorous science, trains
complementary and alternative medicine researchers, and gives out authoritative
information. Send all requests for information and questions about NCCAM to the
NCCAM Clearinghouse.

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